Posts Tagged ‘Top Ten Tuesday’

10. Tiny Library
This blog is mostly reviews with a few giveaways. I enjoy the fact that most of the reviews are from books I am not familiar with, so this blog is great for tuning me in to books I might never have heard of otherwise.

9. http://irmasworldatuncg.blogspot.com/
Though technically not a book blog, per se, Irma’s World is the blog that is run by the fabulous librarians at the campus main library where I attended both college and graduate school- The University of NC @ Greensboro. I loved everything about this campus (which is why I elected to go to the same school for graduate school that I went to for college) especially Walter Clinton Jackson Library.

8. The Broke and The Bookish
These are the guys that host this TTT fabulous meme. In addition to several other bitchin’ memes (my favorite is Cocktail and a Conversation Wednesdays) these guys also post reviews of books I am either extreamly interested in reading or have already read. There are several contributors to this blog so the levels and genres of books reviewed is very varied. They also host several giveaways and they update often.

7. That’s What She Read
Okay, Okay, I will admit that I was first drawn to this blog solely for the awesome title. However, after exploring it for a while, I discovered that it’s actually a really gnarly blog! I love the layout and the header is TOO CUTE! I love her selection of books and she updates often,usually, every day.

6. A Room of One’s Own
Jillian is SUCH a great blogger. She is my blogger role model. The layout of this blog is not too overwhelming, but with enough graphics and words to keep you interested. This blog is slammin’ because Jillian is so involved (this is the blog/blogess that hosts the Classics Club that I am apart of. See tab at the top of this page for the page on that). In addition to The Classics Club this blog also has a ton of read-alongs and excellently written reviews.

5. Dead White Guys
I started following the DWG blog because I first started following Amanda on Twitter (I found her through Book Riot who she also writes for). This blog is so funny; I adore her writing style. Even though it’s mostly about, well, dead white guys (read: Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Poe, Dickens, etc.) it is so modernized mainly because of all the hilarious gifs and illustrations that she places in there that fit the posts so perfectly.

4. Roof Beam Reader
Well I had to include a dude on this list (because dude book bloggers are very few and very far between) and RBR is the best. I actually just looked at my list of blogs I follow and I don’t have any other dudes on there… Hmm.. Even if I did though, I’d still pick this one. RBR is cool because he is the fellow that hosted the Austen in August Reading Event I participated in last month. In addition to awesome reading events, RBR also has a beautifully laid out blog with quality reviews (I’m pretty sure I gathered from one of his tweets that he’s pursuing a PhD in literature).

3. Sarah Reads Too Much
This was the first book blog I ever followed. I don’t remember how I discovered Sarah (maybe I was reading reviews of a particular book one day and stumbled upon her blog) but I am so glad that I did. She offers great reviews of books I’m super interested in so I am always excited when she posts about a book I’ve not yet discovered. Plus, she’s awesome because she is going for her MLIS degree starting this fall and I wish her the bestest best of luck!

2. The Story Girl
This blog has possibly the best look to it of any of the blogs that I follow (book and otherwise). This blog offers great reviews of books I’m interested in and she participates in a lot of cool memes (she’s doing the RIPVII meme, too!) and, best of all, she loves Anne of Green Gables!

1. Musings of a Bookshop Girl
This is my favorite blog to read. I check it everyday for updates and I get really excited when there is one. Through this blog I discovered the RIPVII reading event. Ellie is an Englander who owns a bookstore with her mom- I. Love. That! Really awesome reviews of super cool books can be found at this blog and she participates in fun memes.

So, I hope I have lead you to discover some cool new blogs. It was so hard for me to pick just 10, there are so many blogs that I enjoy reading, but these are the 10 I wanted to share with my readers. Do you have any favorites that I need to check out ASAP?! Leave a link and I will look forward to discovering some new blogs of my own!

Tuesdays are hard for me. We have faculty meetings on Tuesdays which keep me at work up to two hours late add that to my 30 minute commute and any errands I have to run and the mess that I-77 leading into Charlotte becomes in the afternoons, then you’ll understand why it’s all I can do to eat a dinner and then fall asleep with the fork still in my mouth. My TTT will most likely come more and more on Wednesdays and usually a week later than what they are doing over at The Broke and The Bookish. (*note, I started this post on Wednesday night and I came into my office to look up a menu for a local Greek restaurant and discovered that I had never finished the post (a impromtu tennis game pulled me away mid-post Wednesday night) and so now you’ll see just how late I can be…)

I have read 69 (I know, right, that number seems so small) since I started Bookjackets in January 2011. Picking out ten favorites was harder than I thought that it would be! I started by circling the ones I loved and then I had to compare them up against each other and give them ratings based on things like “characterization” “plot” “readability”, etc. to get it narrowed down to the following ten:

10. If You Want Me To Stay by Michael Parker, Read February 7-8 2012, 5/5 Stars
I read this book for a program I was involved in at the local public library. The program involved a group of us reading the same book about some aspect of North Carolina culture and then inviting in a guest lecturer to discuss the book and the themes and the history of NC with us. This was my favorite book from the series.

9. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, Read February-March 2011, 4/5 Stars
This was another book that we read for the same NC Culture series, but I had read this one about a year before the series actually started. When my dad gave me a nook color for my 26th birthday this was the first book I read on the e-reader. Read more about that adventure here.

8. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley, Read April 2011, 4/5 Stars
I read this book over spring break my first year of working as a librarian in public schools. I was back in my favorite town, Greensboro, NC where I had gone to college and graduate school and where my boyfriend was still in college and I loved the feeling of being “home” and I associate that feeling with this book. I also loved the book, it is a good mystery and our sleuth, Flavia De Luce, is such a scamp I dare you not to love her instantly.

7. The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins
The Hunger Games, Read November 2010, 5/5 Stars
Catching Fire, Read in April 2011, 5/5 Stars
Mockingjay, Read in May 2011, 4/5 Stars
Read about my love for this series here.

6. The Weight of Silence/These Things Hidden by Heather Gudenkauf
The Weight of Silence, Read in July 2011, 3/5 stars
These Things Hidden, Read in July 2011, 5/5 stars
I read these over the summer after my first year in public education. I had greatly disliked the first place I worked at and I was in the process of quitting and moving to a new place of employment. I was having a difficult time telling my uber-scary boss that I was splitting, but these books were such a good escape for me at the end of the day, I truly value them for helping me get through that rough time.

5. Bossypants by Tina Fey, Read in April 2012, 5/5 Stars
Just. So. Damn. Funny. And honest. I love Tina Fey. She is my celebrity crush. She is so beautiful and funny and smart and nerdy and I want to be her. I loved this book because it was purely Tina Fey being open and honest about what it’s like being a woman working in a man’s world.

4. The Reeducation of Cherry Truong by Aimee Phan, Read in in late January/Early February 2012, 4/5 Stars
I received a ARC of this book from St. Martin’s Press and I wanted to do a good job of reviewing it, even if I disliked the book. This was the first time I had been asked to review a book for the blog, so I knew I couldn’t blow it. I ended up loving the book and I was pretty pleased with the review I put out. Read the review here.

3. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, 5/5 Stars
I. Loved. This. Book. Read about how much I loved it here. I even voted it my #1 book of 2011!

2. A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash, Read in July 2012, 5/5 Stars
This is a more recent read. I had been hearing a little bit about it and I knew I wanted to read it because I love local authors and books set in my state. I was in love with this book from page one. Read my review here. Also, my book club has chosen to read this one in January 2013 and I’m hoping to get Cash to Skype with us, he tweeted me that he would!! Read the review here.

1. Becoming Odyssa by Jennifer Pharr Davis, Read in February 2011 , 5/5 Stars
Again, I am super partial to local authors and Jenn Pharr Davis is one of my favorites! This is the story of a gal who sets out to thru-hike the entire AT by herself and she accomplishes her goal and tells us about all of the incidents she survives in this awesome book. This is a fun read and an encouraging read. I recently saw that there is a new book out by her husband, Brew Davis, that chronicles the hike that landed her the world-record of the fastest thru-hike of the AT which she did in an amazing 46 days!

I know, I know, I missed it again! This school year is already kicking my butt (literally, I fell down the stairs at school today like a ding-dong!) so I just didn’t have the strength Tuesday or Wednesday when I got home to update and do my TTT post even though I already had it rough drafted out on notebook paper. So, here it is, two days late, my TTT for the week of 814/12:

Romances that I believe would survive this crazy real world we live in:

10. Alice and Charlie from American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld.

image from socionix.com

I was a big fan of the former first lady at one time. She reminded me a lot of myself. I guess I still am a fan, somewhat. I don’t care at all for her husband. I did care a great deal for this book though. It’s a fictionalized account of the relationship that blossomed between Laura and George, including all the gory details of a car crash caused by Mrs. Bush herself as a teenager. Having loved Sittenfeld’s first novel, Prep, I bought this one with the same expectations. However, this is a very different breed of book than Prep, though I did end up enjoying both. I do think that Charlie (George) and Alice (Laura) would have made it it reality, because..well… they did!

9. Jacob Black and Bella Swan from the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer

image from fanpop.com

I choose Jacob over Edward because I am a huge member of Team Jacob (I’m wearing my Quileute Tribe shirt right now) but also because I believe that they would have ended up together in reality. After Edward hit the road, Jack in New Moon and Bella and Jacob became closer, I really believe that they would have stayed together in reality. Being abandoned and dumped the way Bella was, I just can’t believe she’d go back to him. Oh, well, at least Jake got a happy ending, too.

8. Marlena and Jacob from Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

image from wwhan12.wordpress.com

If you fall in love over any animal, especially an elephant, it’s just gonna last forevs.

7. Elinor and Edward from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Maaaaannnnn, I wanted these two together the whole darn book. One was so shy and proper and the other was so bent on honoring his promises that they were willing to be apart if needed. Thank goodness it wasn’t needed and they got to be together in the end!

6. Gilbert and Anne from Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maude Montgomery

image from fanpop.com

This movie was on television the other night and I got caught up in it again. It was the early one, where Anne moves to Green Gables and not the later one where she and Gilbert end up happily ever after, but it did get me in the frame of mind of how these two were so meant for each other and that’s why I just had to include them on this list, because honestly they would so have made it in reality!

5. Allie and Noah from The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

image from romanceeternal.org

Sweetest couple ever. And he wrote their story down. And then he read it to her. And then they died together. And then I cried.

4. Jamie and Claire from The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon

image from outlandishobservations.blogspot.com

Even though this whole series is so totally unbelievable with the whole time travel thing and all, I still deeply believe that the love between Claire and Jamie would have lasted and would have survived whether in ye olden Scotland or in new modern England (or America, or Canada, or wherever in the world they find themselves).

3. Hermione and Ron from The Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling

image from fanpop.com

Upon my first reading of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone I knew that these two were meant fror each other.

2. Josephine March and Professor Friedrich Baher from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

image from tumblr.com

OF COURSE I would have one of the couples from Little Women on here and OF COURSE it would be my most favoritest gal Jo and her hunka hunka burnin’ love Prof. Baher! When I made my rough draft the other night, I originally had Laurie down as the other half of Jo’s forever heart, but then I started thinking about childhood friends and how they really rarely ever work out romantically in the end. Jo had to grow up and go out in the world and get a job and write her books and learn some more and THEN she could settle down and who better to do it with than Friedrich! This man could help her open her school and publish her books! I truly believe that they would have made it in the real world based on their relationship of mutual honesty and respect.

That’s right, there are only 9 couples on the list because as hard as I racked my noggin, I just couldn’t think of another couple to add on and I didn’t want to get sloppy by just picking some random couple (like Rhett and Scarlett. I honestly do not think that those two would have made it in the real world. Tomorrow may be another day, doll, but I think he’s gonna tell you to shove it again.) so I’m leaving it at 9. Who do you think I left off the list? Who do you think should have been left off the list?

Well, it’s official, today is my last day of summer vacation. I start training (which I’ve already done, last year, but don’t let me get started on that tangent) tomorrow for two weeks and then I have a week of workdays and then the kids come back on the 27th. Those three weeks of preparing for the little darlings means that I will be worn out even before the kids arrive and it also means a lot less time for me to read which I really hate to part with. Oh well, I’m thankful to even have a job in this economy and at least I will be back into a routine. Since tomorrow is technically my “first day of school” I have decided that this weeks TTT will be books set in or around a school.

10. Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities by Alexandra RobbinsI was never in a sorority in college, but I was always fascinated by the girls who wore matching shirts with Greek letters on them and who seemed to only socialize with each other. I only knew what sororities were like from TV shows like Beverly Hills: 90210 and movies like The House Bunny. This book isn’t that much different than those televised portrayls. Robbins goes undercover and rushes a sorority, gaining the trust of the girls in the house and gives us all the gory details of body image troubles and hazing horrors. It made me pretty glad I never decided to seek out one of those matching t-shirts.

9. The Magic Schoolbus Series by Joanna Cole and Illustrated by Bruce Degen Let’s be honest here, who didn’t want to be in Ms. Frizzle’s class and get to go on these slammin’ field trips? The Magic Schoolbus books were non-fiction fun escapes that taught me (and countless other youngins) about topics like the solar system, the water cycle, and, my personal favorite, what it’s like inside of a hurricane.

8. Villette by Charlotte Bronte Okay, this one probably made the list because I just finished reading (and loving) this one. However, there is always something so romantic and exotic about a European boarding school that I just love.

7. Blackboard Jungle by Evan HunterOkay, this book was written in the 1950’s- when kids were still “good”!!! If you thought that they were bad then, I double-dog dare you to attempt to set foot in a school today. Seriously, folks, nothing can prepare you for what happens inside a school. It would blow your mind. It does mine on a daily basis.

6. Matilda by Roald DahlI loved Roald Dahl, and I especially loved Matilda. Matilda was a relatable character for me since she was reading well before going to school. I hated that mean old Ms. Trunchbull for her and I equally loved Ms. Honey. This is a charming story that I can’t wait to share with my daughter one day!

5. Christy by Catherine MarshallChristy is the story of a 19-year old girl who goes to teach in the Smoky Mountains of NC (yes! I love a NC Mountains book!) and discovers hardships both from the townspeople and from her reluctant students but eventually comes to love them all. There was also a CBS-produced mini-series staring Kellie Martin that came out which is equally enjoyable!

4. The Chocolate War by Robert CormierFrequently chalanged and often seen on the ALA’s Top 100 Banned/Challenged Book List this social-commentary book has it all- sex, secret socities, refusal to sell chocolate for those stupid school mandated fundraisers (ever year I end up with a stack of straight-up CRAP that I have felt like I had to buy from the students. The book is pretty intense and it raises up some thought-provoking concepts.

3. Speak by Laurie Halse AndersonI read this book in one sitting while I myself was in high school. It’s got some pretty tough issues in it, but one of my good friends did a unit on this book with her eighth grade honors class last year, and it must have gone pretty well. The kids seemed to enjoy it and I had a lot of them come into the library asking for more books like it and more by Anderson. There was also a Lifetime TV movie staring Bella Swan that came out a few years ago.

2. I am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe. My aunt sent me a copy of this book for my birthday the year before I left for college. Like the protagonist, I, too, am from a small, rural, North Carolina town. After reading this book I wasn’t sure if I was excited or nervous to go to college. This was a fun read and I felt really smart reading a Tom Wolfe novel (and one that was so thick, too!). This is one I remember immensly enjoying and one that I will need to revisit soon.

1. The Harry Potter Series by J.K. RowlingHogwarts, Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hogwarts– enough said! (PS, I think that I would be a Hufflepuff, but that kind of thing is best left up to the sorting hat).

With my “ordeal” yesterday the top ten list will be presented on WEDNESDAY instead of TUESDAY this week. And now, with no further adieu, I present to you the top ten (IMHO) funniest book titles (and, as always, click the cover of the book to open a link to buy each one):

10.

For those of you too embarassed to buy them from the store.

9. and/or

It’s just more delicious than cooking without it!

8.

Because it will probably be the most boring thing EVER.

7.

Zombies make everything better.

6.

This is the book I wanted to give to everyone I knew as I watched all of my friends, cousins, classmates, neighbors, strangers, everyone-but-me get married.

5.

Seriously, kid, just go the f— to sleep. You’re really starting to anger your father. Anger him enough and he’ll write a book about what a bratty child you were, ruining his nights like that.

4.

Did they just call that horse a lesbian?!

3.

I hate talking on the phone, so it’ll definitely be me.

2.

I have a feeling many of us could have written this one. We’ve all had a Dick or two in our lives at some point. For me, my favorite Dick is of the Van Dyke variety.

Okay guys, so I really should have been giving credit where credit is due and linking up my TTT posts to an amazing blog- The Broke and the Bookish. These guys started the TTT meme and I will now be linking to their TTT picks and I will add my link to their site.

I gotta make this weeks list a quick one, so it’ll just be a picture of the cover of the book and as always feel free to click the cover and purchase the book from IndieBound.org and beat me to reading it as this weeks list is The Top Ten Books I Feel As If Everyone Has Read Except Me!

10.

9.

8.

7.

6.

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

So there you have it- ten books that I am sure every other reader in the world has read except me. These are all books that I do hope to one day read. I started Les Mis a few weeks ago, but it wasn’t the right time for me to read it so I had to put it down. I was enjoying it and everyone one of my friends on goodreads has given it 4 or 5 stars.Plus, I have to read it before I go see the play in Charlotte in a few months!

Are there any books on the list that you haven’t read either?
Are there any other books you have in mind that you think everyone has read but you?
Which of these books do I absolutely without a doubt have to read first?

{PS sorry the TTT is late AGAIN this week. I was actually camping in the woods on Tuesday and this is the first chance at a computer I have had all week. I currently do not have Internet at my apartment which makes updating regularly extremely difficult and cumbersome. However, I am moving (yay yay YAY!) on the 21st and the first thing I plan to do is order Internet so that I will be able to update more often and with more oomph to the posts. Thanks for bearing with an all pictures post today! I hope you are all having a great summer and are reading away! -V}